Alumni Gift Funds Student Center Renovations

Date: September 1999
Contact: Marlys Amundson ( marlysa@support.ucla.edu )
Phone: 310-206-0540

A gift from Sonny and Jerry Hollander (’48) has opened new doors for engineering students with the renovation of The Jerry and Sonny Hollander Engineering Student Center. The refurbished Center provides much-needed space for corporate presentations and student group meetings, an expanded computer lab and study area, and offices for student leaders.

Sonny and Jerry Hollander (center) with ESUC officers at the opening of the renovated Student Center.

The Engineering Student Center is used by 30 student groups and their parent organization, ESUC. Nearly one-third of the undergraduates taking upper-level courses use the space for meetings, as a study area, or to meet with corporate representatives.

Former and current ESUC Presidents Rebecca Mendoza, Vincent Hua and Andy Fong met with the Hollanders and outlined the student groups’ critical need for functional space. Dilapidated furniture and surroundings, poor use of the current space, and the poor image the room presents to outside groups were all persuasive arguments for the need to renovate.

Sonny attended UCLA in 1946 and 1947, and Jerry was Vice President of the UCLA Engineering Society (ESUC) in 1947.

“As a student at UCLA we did not have an area for studying or meeting with our fellow engineering students, except Kerckhoff Hall, which was always full,” he explained. “Also, after witnessing the present state of the lounge, I felt that for the future of our engineering students, a more suitable area was needed for outside companies to interview prospective employees.”

The success enjoyed by Jerry’s business, Penguin Filter Pump Industries, allowed the couple to make this gift. He opted for a career in hydraulics based on what he learned at UCLA, and started the company in 1975.

Architectural rendering of the refurbished Student Center.